This thread is getting pretty far off topic though so my last post on the subject of the Mai Tai court case comes verbatim from Trader Vic himself. As found in his last published work, the 1976 "Trader Vic's Helluva Man's Cookbook", the Trader didn't pull any punches:

"I've said this a million times. We originated this drink; we made the first Mai Tai; we named the drink. A lot of bastards all over the country have copied it and copyrighted it and claimed it for their own. I hope they get the pox. They're a bunch of lousy bastards for copying my drink."

The pertinent point here is the licensing agreement with Don. That is why there was a court case. Not because Don didn't like being a stinker, but because he'd made a deal with a company and they used the name Mai Tai in that deal and Vic didn't care for that. Pure business, not a demand of drink paternity.

It probably wasn't just because they used the name, they probably tried to copyright it (see Vic's quote above, which was published years after the case was settled) when they introduced their copycat product. Trader Vic had to defend his right to the name of his restaurant's signature drink and the interests of his food products company.

In preparation for the trial he did produce the testimony of his long time friend Carrie Guild from Tahiti who supposedly named it the night it was invented.

On 2013-10-07 15:16, TropicDrinkBoy wrote:It probably wasn't just because they used the name, they probably tried to copyright it (see Vic's quote above, which was published years after the case was settled) when they introduced their copycat product. Trader Vic had to defend his right to the name of his restaurant's signature drink and the interests of his food products company.

In preparation for the trial he did produce the testimony of his long time friend Carrie Guild from Tahiti who supposedly named it the night it was invented.

[ This Message was edited by: TropicDrinkBoy 2013-10-07 15:24 ]

Where are people getting this info? Was it in a book? Newspaper? Word of mouth? Dreams? _________________"You can't eat real Polynesian food. It's the most horrible junk I've ever tasted." —Trader Vic Bergeron

TikiTacky, it’s time to wake up and crack open your copy of “Tiki Style” to page 127 (also found in “The Book of Tiki”) where you will find the following sworn statement by Carrie Wright (previously Carrie Guild):

“I, too, hereby solemnly swear that on a summer night in 1944 Trader Vic served us a delightfully-flavored drink in an oversized glass filled with fine ice and asked us to suggest an appropriate Tahitian name.

One sip, and my natural reaction was to say ‘Mai Tai-Roa Ae’, which in Tahitian means ‘Out of this world – the best’ … Well, that was that! Vic named the drink ‘Mai Tai’.” It was signed “Carrie Wright”, Oakland-1970.

The entire page is devoted to the 1970 lawsuit against the Sun-Vac Corporation, and since sworn statements are typically submitted during legal proceedings one can surmise that was the purpose of this statement. On the same page you will also find a quaint picture of an elderly Trader Vic and Carrie in what may be the original Trader Vic location.

Finally, it is common practice when companies introduce new products to file trade mark or copyright applications so I wouldn’t be surprised if Sun-Vac did so when they introduced their Mai Tai product. If you read my post carefully you will see that I qualified it with “probably”. Since Trader Vic wrote in 1976 (reference supplied in my previous post) of his disgust of those who tried to copyright the Mai Tai, and since on this occasion he had to take legal action against Sun-Vac, it is likely that they did so.

Ah ha! Finally found it on page 169 (please, bigbrotiki, promise me your next book will have an index!). Thanks for the tip. No matter how many times I read this book, I find something I'd missed.
_________________"You can't eat real Polynesian food. It's the most horrible junk I've ever tasted." —Trader Vic Bergeron